


Call of the Mild

by lithos_saeculum



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Animal Transformation, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-03-11 10:31:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13522386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lithos_saeculum/pseuds/lithos_saeculum
Summary: From a kinkmeme prompt. Gladio is a werewolf. Prompto turns into a tiny kitten. Much cuddling ensues.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a break from your regularly scheduled Fluff + Angst (Flangst!) to bring you some Fluff + Fluff (uh, Fluffuff?) Original prompt [here](https://ffxv-kinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/4398.html?thread=8732718#cmt8732718). Probably two or three chapters.
> 
>  ~~The pairing will probably remain mostly suggested.~~ <\- OK I was wrong about that. But there is a lot of cuddling. So much cuddling, my friends.

They all know that Gladio is a werewolf. That’s been the blessing and the curse of his family since time immemorial. It’s what makes him preternaturally strong and fast, it’s what makes him aggressively loyal – in short, it’s what makes him a Shield. And if, from time to time, he’s a literal beast, well, he’s still strong and fast and loyal even when he’s on four legs and covered in fur, so nobody minds much. Noct even sometimes admits to himself that he kind of likes it when a snarling, oversized wolf appears out of nowhere and rips apart whatever it is that’s been threatening them. Only sometimes, though. Most of the time it’s just – kind of overbearing. And very Gladio.

So they know that Gladio’s a werewolf. Even Prompto knows, brought up to speed the first time he shows up to find Gladio sleeping at Noctis’ feet, taking up basically the whole floor space. At first, Prompto’s freaked out – no surprise there, Gladio is huge and his teeth are the size of Prompto’s fingers – but once he realises who it is, he calms down pretty quick. And then he pets Gladio. Which is weird, because Gladio doesn’t let people pet him, not when he’s a wolf, definitely not when he’s a human. But Prompto has a way with animals, so.

In retrospect, maybe Noct should have seen it coming. 

But he doesn’t. Because they all know that Gladio’s a werewolf, but they _don’t_ know that Prompto’s got a streak of the wild in him, too. Even Prompto doesn’t know, as they find out later. Of course, in Prompto’s case, _wild_ might not be – quite the right adjective. 

This is how it goes: Ignis and Noct are in town, stocking up on supplies. Gladio and Prompto are at the haven just a little way outside town, setting up camp. It’s been, overall, an uneventful day or two – they’ve dispatched a few easy kills, made some money, and now they’re all thinking about what Ignis is going to cook. No more toast. Something _good_. 

But when Ignis and Noct get back to camp, they find it deserted. The tent’s up, everything’s set out. But there’s no Prompto and there’s no Gladio. Until Noct notices a large, dark shape that, in the evening light, he’d mistaken for a scrunched up tarp. It’s too furry to be a tarp, though. And it’s breathing. 

“Gladio,” Noct says. Ignis turns, and Noct points. It’s unusual: Gladio doesn’t usually wolf out unless there’s a serious threat or he’s feeling particularly macho. Like, even more macho than usual. That, the fact that Gladio’s lying still, and the absence of Prompto, all combine to start a worried thrum going in Noct’s belly. He walks over to the hulking shape of Gladio, Ignis right behind him.

Gladio’s curled up. He doesn’t look injured. He’s awake, amber eyes taking note of Noct as he skirts around him. When Gladio’s a wolf, he’s still definitely Gladio, but he’s not – quite human. Noct’s never sure exactly how he experiences it all, how much he understands. But he knows to be careful. Wolf-Gladio ( _Wolfio_ , as Prompto calls him when he’s not in earshot) is tetchy, on the whole. Even tetchier than normal Gladio. 

“Hey, Gladio,” Noct says. “Where’s Prompto?” 

Gladio doesn’t raise his head. He’s watching Noct closely. Noct squats on his haunches and watches back.

“Did something happen?” he asks, belly thrumming more. He knows Gladio wouldn’t hurt Prompto, and Prompto’s always seemed pretty comfortable around him in his wolf form, but – but Prompto’s also anxious, and freaks out sometimes. Could Gladio have done something to scare him enough that he ran off into the forest?

Noct really hopes not. 

“What’s that?” Ignis asks. Noct looks at him, and then follows where he’s pointing. There’s a little patch of colour on Gladio’s coat. That’s weird, because Gladio is very definitely black all over. Noct looks closer, and sees that it’s not part of Gladio’s coat at all. It’s something else. A pair of ears. Tiny, golden, cat ears. He can only presume that there’s a tiny, golden cat attached to them, but if so, said cat is hidden, Gladio curled completely around it. 

“A cat?” Noct says. It must just be a kitten. For a moment, even through his worry for Prompto, he feels a surge of excitement. Kittens are amazing. “Did you find a cat, Gladio?” He hopes Gladio didn’t hurt the cat. He’s not sure how he feels about cats when he’s being Wolfio.

Gladio just watches him. Noct looks at the tiny ears. They’re twitching a little. “Is the cat OK?” he asks. He reaches towards it. 

And that’s when Gladio growls, low in his throat. Noct’s heard him growl before, of course. It’s a really impressive growl. Gladio’s even growled at him a bunch of times, what with being tetchy and all. It’s just never been quite so menacing before.

Ignis stands bolt upright. “Excuse me?” he says. “Would you care to repeat that?” 

Gladio manages to somehow look threatening and slightly ashamed of himself at the same time. Something very strange is happening, and Noct’s about to ask again where Prompto is when there’s another sound. It’s the tiniest little _meow_ Noct has ever heard, and he feels his heart instantly turn to goo. Then, struggling a little, a tiny golden cat’s face appears above the dark bulk of Gladio’s side. The kitten mews again. Noct realises that he’s smiling at it, and can’t find a way to make himself stop.

“Hey, little guy,” he says. “Where did you come from?” 

The kitten mews again. It’s got blue eyes, and weird markings on its face that kind of look like freckles. It reminds him of–

“Noct,” Ignis says. “Their clothes are here.” 

He looks around to see Ignis is standing by a heap of clothes. Gladio’s clothes, obviously. But Ignis is holding up a vest covered in silver studs that most definitely does not belong to Gladio. That belongs, in fact, to–

Noct looks back at the kitten. The freckle-markings. The blue eyes.

“Prompto,” he breathes.

~

As a human being, Prompto’s kinda on the short side. Skinny, too. But he’s definitely an adult, even if sometimes he acts like he’s twelve. (It’s not like Noct doesn’t do the same, so he can’t really complain.)

Apparently, though, as a cat, Prompto is very definitely a kitten. A tiny, tiny, almost unspeakably adorable kitten. 

Noct sits down on his ass and stares at Prompto’s tiny fuzzy kitten-face. 

“Gladio,” he says. “Is that Prompto?” 

Gladio makes a quiet _wuff_. It’s their system: one bark for yes, two barks for no. Gladio’s not normally _quiet_ , though. 

Ignis comes to crouch next to him. “What happened?” he asks. 

Gladio doesn’t answer, obviously. Unless you count the look he gives Ignis, which is about as sarcastic as a wolf’s expression can get, and fairly easily interpretable as _you remembered I can’t talk, right?_

Prompto mews and seems to be trying to crawl out from Gladio’s embrace. Gladio curls tighter and nudges Prompto’s head with his nose.

Shiva, it’s adorable. 

“You wanna – uh – can I touch him?” Noct asks. He’s itching to reach out again, but he definitely does not want Gladio’s teeth anywhere near any of his soft parts. 

Gladio stares at him. Noct stares back.

“C’mon,” he says, aware that his voice has a kind of embarrassing pleading note to it. “You know I’m not going to hurt him. He’s my best – Prompto. And anyway, I love cats.” 

Gladio eyes him for a moment longer, then uncurls slightly. Prompto immediately struggles free and scrambles over Gladio’s haunch before falling in a tumble of limbs to the ground. Figures Prompto would be the most ungainly kitten ever to kitten. And somehow that just makes it even more adorable.

Shit, Noct is seriously starting to worry that his heart might actually liquefy and drain into his lungs or something. 

“Hey, little guy,” he says, reaching out and setting Prompto on his feet. Oh, Astrals, he’s so soft. He’s soooooo soft. Uh. Noct was definitely going to say something else, but. Prompto’s so soft. 

_Mew_ , says Prompto, and trots over to Noct’s knee, where he proceeds to try and fail to scramble up onto his lap. Meanwhile, Gladio’s sitting up, watching intently. When Prompto slips down to the ground, Gladio leans forward and uses his nose to help push Prompto up onto Noct’s lap. 

“Thanks,” Noct says, even though what he really wants to say is _uhhhhhhhhhhh adorable_. He doesn’t think Gladio will take kindly to the word _adorable_ being used in any way that might be possibly be inferred to refer to him. And up until today, it would never have occurred to Noct to do so. Gladio is a hulking collection of teeth and claws and muscle.

Only, as it turns out, Gladio is actually an _adorable_ hulking collection of teeth and claws and muscle.

Shit. 

Noct rearranges himself to provide the most comfortable platform he can for Prompto, then reaches down and starts to stroke him with a forefinger. Prompto immediately curls up on Noct’s lap and starts purring. Ugh. _Ugggggghhhhhh_.

“Perhaps it’s a status effect,” Ignis says. Noct starts a little. He’d forgotten Ignis was there. He looks at him to see him looking thoughtful and unruffled. How is he unruffled? Did he not just see the thing with the – where Gladio pushed Prompto onto his lap? With his _nose_? Did he not see that? 

“I’m really glad you’re not watching all this,” he says to Prompto. “I’m pretty sure your heart would have exploded by now.” 

Prompto mews and then, apparently having had enough sitting around purring, gets to his feet, stretches, and starts trying to catch Noct’s finger. When Noct allows him to pounce on it, he wraps his legs around it and starts chewing with tiny, adorable teeth.

“Ignis, I think I’m going to die,” Noct says. 

“Hm,” Ignis says, standing up. “I’ll go and see if we have any tuna.” 

~

Even though Noct doesn’t really know much about how Gladio experiences life when he’s being Wolfio, it’s very clear that his human intelligence is still in there in some form. He can understand the conversations around him and remember them when he goes back to being human. He can answer questions, as long as they’re not open-ended. He’s a little different – a little more instinctive, a little less inhibited, which, given how uninhibited human Gladio is, is somewhat terrifying – but he’s still _Gladio_.

Kitten-Prompto, however, seems to have taken something of a ding in the intelligence stakes. 

“He fell off the table again,” Noct reports. 

Ignis doesn’t even look round. “Did he land on his feet this time?” 

“No,” Noct says. He sighs dreamily. “It’s really cute.” 

Gladio pads over to Prompto and, with infinite gentleness, picks him up by the scruff of his neck and sets him on his feet. Prompto ambles over to Gladio’s foot and starts to try to climb his leg like a tree.

“He’s climbing Gladio,” Noct reports.

Ignis sighs and turns around. “I really don’t need you to tell me every single thing–” he starts, and then pauses, pushing his glasses back up his nose. “Oh,” he says. “Well. That is rather darling.” 

“How long do you think he’s gonna stay like this?” Noct asks, watching Gladio completely fail to do anything about the fact that Prompto’s climbing up his leg. 

“I assume you’re asking because you’re concerned about your friend and you want him back in his normal form?” Ignis asks.

Noct glances over at him. He can’t even bring himself to feel guilty, really. Kitten-Prompto is just so ridiculously cute. 

Ignis sighs. “I see,” he says, and turns back to his cooking.

~

Over dinner, Ignis develops a theory. Gladio took on his wolf form because Prompto was so vulnerable, is how the theory goes. He hasn’t changed back yet because Prompto is still extremely vulnerable. Some instinctual part of Gladio recognises that vulnerability and requires him to be in the form most suited to protecting Prompto, when Prompto is an extremely tiny cat. 

Noct’s not really listening. He’s watching Prompto, who’s sitting on Gladio’s head, between his ears, apparently trying to clean him with his tongue. Given the size of Prompto’s tongue compared with the size of Gladio’s body, it’s going to take a while. He holds out a mushroom, hoping to tempt him down.

“Noct, cats are obligate carnivores,” Ignis says. “Stop trying to feed him your vegetables.” 

“Oh,” Noct says. He eyes his plate. The mushrooms were definitely his first choice to get rid of, but if it means getting Prompto back in his lap, he’s willing to sacrifice some of his pork chop. He tears a piece off and holds it out. 

“ _Noctis_ ,” Ignis says. 

But later on, Noct catches him slipping Prompto some of the leftovers. 

~

By the time they go to bed, they’re no closer to figuring out why Prompto is a cat than when they first started out. Admittedly, Ignis is doing most of the running, there. Noct is mostly just cooing and having a battle of wills with Gladio about who gets to snuggle Prompto at any given moment. But still. Ignis is the ideas guy, right? It’s not Noct’s job to figure this shit out. (And anyway, he maybe kind of doesn’t really want to.) 

So they go to sleep in the tent. You’d think, with one body made so much smaller, there’d be a lot more room than usual. But Wolfio takes up a _lot_ of space. And he insists on curling up around Prompto, no matter how much Noct pleads. Asshole. 

In the middle of the night, though, Noct is woken up by the fact that he’s about to suffocate. It takes him a panicked moment to realise that the reason for this is that there’s a tiny cat curled up on his face, blocking both his nose and his mouth. By the time he’s realised it, he’s already sent said tiny cat tumbling to the ground. 

“Oh, shit, Prompto,” Noct says, reaching for the barely-visible ball of fluff and tucking it into the crook of his elbow. “Sorry, dude. I didn’t know it was you.” 

Prompto lets out a muffled squeak and burrows deeper into Noct’s elbow. Noct pets him carefully. 

“Sorry,” he whispers again. 

Noct lies back down, scratching Prompto’s ears. After a minute or two, Prompto starts to uncurl from Noct’s elbow, and rearranges himself so that he’s curled on Noct’s chest instead, purring with an impressive volume for such a small animal. Noct starts to drift off, still drowsly scratching Prompto’s ears. 

A moment later, he’s woken up by a much, much heavier weight landing on his stomach. 

“Oof,” Noct says, which he’d thought was something only comic book characters said. The heavy weight rearranges itself until it’s covering the entire left side of his stomach and chest. He makes a feeble attempt at shoving it off, but damn, the wolf is heavy. 

“Ignis,” Noct says, sounding a tiny bit pathetic. Or maybe a lot pathetic. 

He hears Ignis sigh heavily in the darkness. Then a light comes on and shines in his eyes. 

“Gladio, why are you crushing our sworn liege lord?” he asks. He doesn’t sound particularly sympathetic. 

Gladio ignores him. 

Ignis turns the light off again. “He wants to protect Prompto,” he says. “And you want to cuddle Prompto. This seems like a sensible solution.” 

“Huh?” Noct says. But Ignis turns on his side in a loud and pointed way.

So Noct goes back to sleep.

~

In the morning, Noct aches in places he didn’t even know existed. And Prompto is still a kitten. A kitten who wakes him up at 5 am by pouncing on his nose. 

“Urgggghh,” Noct says, catching him and hugging him to his chest. “Don’t think I won’t kill you just because you’re cute.” 

Gladio makes a low rumbling noise that vibrates through Noct’s entire body. 

“Ah, c’mon,” Noct says, trying to restrain a struggling Prompto and failing miserably. “You know I’m only kidding.” 

Prompto pounces on his nose again. 

Noct decides to get up.

~

They spend the day at the haven. They’ve got enough money that they don’t need to hunt right away, and Ignis is determined to get to the bottom of why Prompto is a kitten. Luckily, there’s a lake nearby, so while Ignis does his detective thing, Noct heads off there, with Prompto and Gladio following behind. Prompto’s legs are pretty short, though, and before long, Gladio somehow manoeuvres himself so that Prompto is riding on his back, purring at an ear-splitting volume. 

Noct takes a picture with his phone and sends it to Ignis.

Ignis texts back: _I don’t care how adorable he is, we need to know how to change him back._

 _Spoilsport_ , Noct replies. 

~

The lake is peaceful, tiny waves lapping against the shore, a few birds twittering in the trees, and the sound of Prompto’s industrial-strength purring. Noct doesn’t catch much, but he’s content to just sit there. It’s perfect, in fact: a whole morning fishing with no-one to disturb him and a fuzzy little kitten to pet whenever he feels like it. Plus, sometimes Gladio nuzzles Prompto or Prompto tries to clean Gladio, and really, Noct needs to upload his photos to the cloud or he’s gonna run out of space on his phone.

After a few hours, though, he starts to feel kind of – odd. Restless, like something is missing. He pets Prompto some more, and tries to regain that peaceful feeling. But he can’t quite get it back. It doesn’t come back the whole time he’s there, even though he catches a couple of fish, and even though Prompto does this ridiculously adorable thing where he pounces on the fish and then gets scared away when it flip-flops underneath him. By the time he gets back to the campsite, he’s feeling – kinda in a bad mood. But he’s not sure why. 

It’s when he gets there that he figures it out. Because as soon as he sees the tent, he starts thinking about how he can team up with Prompto against Ignis and Gladio at cards, and that’ll make him feel better. Except he can’t, because Prompto’s a kitten. And OK, human Prompto isn’t exactly a card sharp, but at least he’s got opposable thumbs. 

Prompto’s cute, though. He’s really cute. 

“You’re really cute,” he says to Prompto, who’s riding on Gladio’s back again. 

Prompto mews. It’s really cute. 

Noct sighs.

~

That night, there’s a repeat of the performance from the night before. In the morning, Noct wakes up and keeps his eyes shut for a moment. He can feel that Gladio’s still a wolf, from the fact that he’s being seriously crushed by something that’s way too furry to be human. But maybe – maybe Prompto’s turned back. He won’t know until he opens his eyes. So he keeps them shut.

Something pounces on his chin.

He opens his eyes.

“You know what, dude?” he says, as Prompto’s tiny, fuzzy, adorable little kitten face peeps at him from over his chin. “Ignis is right. We gotta find a way to turn you back.” 

Prompto mews. 

Noct decides that means _yes_.


	2. Chapter 2

“Well, it’s unlikely to be a status effect, given that it’s lasted for three days now.” 

Noct looks up from what he’s doing, which is watching Prompto and Gladio. “Hm?” he says. 

Ignis sighs. “I thought you said you wanted to help me get Prompto back to normal?” he said, in his _I am being very calm, I am so calm, Noctis, if you don’t eat this broccoli floret I will lose my mind_ voice.

“I do!” Noct says. “I definitely do. Just–” He looks back at Prompto. Prompto is sitting on Gladio’s head, chewing one of his ears. Gladio seems completely unruffled. Probably because he can’t actually see how cute it is. But still. He has a brief mental image of human Prompto chewing human Gladio’s ear, and decides (a) human Gladio would definitely not be unruffled, (b) human Prompto would need to stand on a stepladder or something, and (c) it would still be kinda cute, if weird. Weirder than having two of your best friends turn into animals on the regular? Huh. Maybe. 

“ _Noctis_ ,” Ignis says, and Noct looks round again. 

“Sorry,” he says. “They’re just so... distracting. Wait – did you say you _don’t_ think it’s a status effect?” 

“Yes, that is what I said,” Ignis says. “Some minutes ago, now.” 

Noct frowns and concentrates very hard on not looking at Prompto and Gladio. “But then – what else could it be?” 

Ignis stares thoughtfully in the direction of Prompto and Gladio. Somehow, he still has his thinky-face on, even though Noct is absolutely sure that Prompto and Gladio are doing something super-cute right now. He’s sure of it because the two of them have been doing something super-cute basically every minute of every hour since Prompto turned into a kitten. It’s really unfair.

“Let’s try this,” Ignis says, and summons a remedy from the armiger. “Noct, could you hold Prompto still for me?” 

OK, Noct is happy with this assignment. This assignment is basically _cuddle a kitten_ , and Noct _never_ gets assignments like that. So he grabs Prompto – causing Gladio to make a slightly annoyed-sounding rumble in his throat – and tucks him into the crook of his elbow, scratching his ears with a forefinger. 

Unfortunately, as it turns out, _hold Prompto still_ is kind of harder than it looks. It’s fine when Prompto actually _wants_ to be still – which is rarely – but right now, what Prompto apparently wants is to escape Noct’s grasp so he can wriggle his way up onto his shoulder for unknown reasons (so he can chew his ear?!?) Noct grabs him and tucks him back in his elbow. Prompto mews in protest and starts struggling.

“For goodness’ sake,” Ignis mutters, and pours the remedy over Prompto. 

Nothing happens. Except that Prompto hisses the tiniest, most adorable hiss, and flings himself out of Noct’s grasp, scurrying over to Gladio and burrowing into his side. He peers out at them, looking bedraggled and reproachful. Noct feels kind of terrible. Gladio looks smug. 

“Hm, well, that’s obviously not the solution,” says Ignis, apparently oblivious to the fact that they’ve just conspired to make a kitten miserable. A kitten who’s Prompto, at that, which makes it double terrible. 

“Sorry, little guy,” Noct says softly, holding out his hand. Kitten Prompto hides his face in Gladio’s fur. Gladio leans over and licks him.

“What about an antidote?” says Ignis.

Prompto disappears under Gladio’s belly entirely.

~

Three hours later, they’re no closer to getting to the root of the problem than they were at the beginning. And Noct’s pretty bored. 

“Hey, I’m gonna go fishing, OK?” he says. “We need fish for Prompto.” 

Ignis sighs. “Very well,” he says, even though they both know that there’s still plenty of yesterday’s fish left. “If you think of any more ideas, let me know.” 

“Will do,” Noct says, and sets off for the lake. Prompto immediately trots after him, and Gladio follows after Prompto. Noct walks slowly so Prompto can keep up. He still feels kind of guilty about the whole _douse Prompto in various liquids_ approach that they tried first, even though it’s been hours since they stopped and Prompto seems to have completely forgotten it, judging by the way he keeps rubbing against Noct’s ankle and purring. 

Once they get to the lake, Noct attaches a lure to his line, swings it back, casts it into the water and – 

– hears a splash and a horrified hiss. Because Prompto is seriously not a very smart kitten. 

“ _Shit_ ,” Noct says, going to his knees on the edge of the jetty. But before he can do anything, there’s a bigger splash, as Gladio takes a running jump into the water. 

And then Prompto surfaces, and he’s – not a kitten. 

“Ah, shit!” he says. “Fuck, what the fuck? It’s freezing in here! What the hell!” 

He stands up, spluttering, and it turns out the water’s only up to mid-thigh on him. And, uh, it also turns out he’s naked. 

“Uh,” Noct says. 

Gladio surfaces as well, doggy-paddling with his muzzle above water. He sees Prompto staring at him, and then, quite suddenly, he turns back into human Gladio ( _should it be “humans out” or “wolfs in”?_ Prompto asked once, but they never came to any conclusions). 

Gladio, of course, is also naked.

“Uh,” Noct says again. 

“Ah!” Prompto shrieks. He claps a hand over his eyes, blushing furiously. “Put some pants on!” 

Gladio looks highly amused. “Nothing you haven’t seen before,” he says. 

“Only because you never use the changing room for _fucking changing_ ,” Prompto says, voice getting more high-pitched by the word. 

Gladio smirks. “You should probably put some pants on yourself,” he says. “You know, unless you want everyone to start comparing us.” 

Prompto fingers spread apart enough for one eye to peep out, and he looks down at himself.

“ _Ah!_ ” he says, clapping his free hand over his crotch. “Why am I naked?!”

Gladio shrugs and winks, then saunters up onto the shore. “Clothes are at the camp, right?” he says to Noct, who, momentarily speechless, just nods. Gladio continues sauntering, for all the world like he’s not walking naked through the woods. Prompto stands still, shivering a little, hands tightly pressed over various bits of his anatomy. 

“Hey,” Noct says, “you can have my coat. Just – come out of the water first. I don’t want it to get soaked.” 

Prompto makes a miserable-sounding squeak that – actually kind of reminds Noct of him as a kitten, and stumbles up the bank to the jetty. He struggles into Noct’s coat and wraps it tightly around himself. “Noct,” he says, “why am I naked?” 

“Because your clothes didn’t fit you any more after you turned into a kitten,” Noct says.

“After I – what?” Prompto says, face a picture of incredulity. 

Noct sighs. “Come on,” he says, putting his fishing gear away. “I’ll explain it to you on the way back to camp.” 

~

“No memory of it at all?” Ignis asks for the third time.

“Nope,” Prompto says. “When you say _kitten_ – I was cute, right? Right?” 

“Here,” Noct says, tossing him his phone. Prompto looks at the picture on it and makes a sort of squealing noise. 

“That’s me?” he says. “That is so unfair. How come you didn’t turn into a kitten, Noct? I bet you’d be soooooo cute.” 

Ignis clears his throat. “Let’s not tempt fate,” he says. “Gladio – what can you tell us about what happened?” 

Gladio shrugs. “We’d finished making camp and then – blondie turned into a kitten,” he says. “That’s pretty much it.” 

“And then you wolfed out,” Noct says. 

Gladio stares at him, challenging. “Yeah,” he says. “I did.” 

“There were no lights or sounds?” Ignis asks. “Prompto didn’t eat or drink anything strange? You didn’t meet any strangers?” 

“Nope,” Gladio says. He sits back in his chair, stretching his legs out. “He just kittened out.” 

“That’s ridiculous,” Noct says, although he’s mostly talking about the turn of phrase. He knows it’s not ridiculous to say that Prompto turned into a kitten, because he definitely did. 

“Hm,” Ignis says. He turns to look at Prompto. “Do you have any – family history of kitten transformations?” he asks.

“Seriously?” Prompto says. 

Ignis raises an eyebrow. “It would be useful to know, yes,” he says. 

Prompto slumps down in his chair. “Uh, well, I’m adopted, so – I don’t know,” he says, fiddling with his wristband. “But I definitely have never turned into a cat before.”

Ignis strokes his chin. “Perhaps it’s something which comes on with maturity,” he says.

“Wait, you’re saying you think Prompto might be a – werekitten?” Noct asks.

“That’s not even a thing,” Prompto says. He looks at Gladio. “That’s not a thing right?” 

Gladio shrugs. “Never heard of it,” he says. “You definitely turned into a kitten, though.” 

“Yeah, _OK_ ,” Prompto says. “I think we’ve established that part.” Then he mutters something about people who are too macho for their own good and wolfing out and something else that Noct doesn’t hear but sounds pretty bitter. 

“You were really cute,” Noct says, in the hope of making him feel better. 

But it doesn’t seem to help much.

~

That night, Noct wakes unexpectedly in the middle of the night to find a weight across his chest. At first, half asleep, he thinks it’s Kitten Prompto, curled up on him as usual. Then he remembers Prompto’s not a kitten any more. Then he realises that it definitely _is_ Prompto, just – human Prompto. Curled into Noct’s side with an arm thrown across his chest and his nose pressed up against Noct’s neck.

Uh. 

“Prompto?” he whispers. 

Prompto sighs in his sleep and makes a sound that definitely sounds like a short, breathy purr. 

Noct lies still and stares at the ceiling. On the one hand, this is weird and uncomfortable. On the other hand, Prompto is warm and snuggly, and doesn’t seem to have a boner (Noct would definitely have noticed that from the way Prompto’s pressed up against his side), and Noct doesn’t have a boner either, so – it’s not _that_ uncomfortable? Cos, like – maybe Prompto’s just still – a cat? It wouldn’t be weird if Prompto was a cat. And Noct’s really sleepy and although it feels uncomfortable in some ways, it definitely feels very comfortable in other ways. And – and – 

Noct falls asleep. 

The next time he wakes up, the light in the tent is dim and grey, and Prompto’s not cuddling him any more. When Noct turns on his side, he sees why: Prompto is currently being the little spoon to Gladio’s big spoon. They’re both asleep, and Gladio has his arm firmly around Prompto’s waist.

 _Huh_ , Noct thinks.

Then he goes back to sleep. 

~

No-one mentions the whole _night-time snuggling_ thing the next day. Noct thinks maybe he dreamed it. No-one mentions the kitten thing, either, not even Gladio, who Noct assumed would take the opportunity to tease Prompto until the end of time. He does butt-slap Prompto a few times, and shove him around a bit, but that’s just Gladio, so. 

~

The next night, Noct doesn’t get woken up by Kitten Prompto or by human Prompto. He doesn’t get woken up at all. Which is good, because he hates waking up. 

~

Two days after that, Prompto sits down next to Noct on the ground while Ignis is cooking and Gladio’s doing one-armed pushups behind the tent. 

“Hey,” he says, fiddling hesitantly with the grass. “Do you know if I did something to piss Gladio off?” 

“Huh?” Noct looks up from his phone. “Like what?” 

“I dunno,” Prompto says. “He’s just been – being an asshole lately.” 

Noct thinks about Gladio spooning Prompto in the middle of the night. “That’s just Gladio,” he says. “ _Asshole_ is how he rolls. You know that.” 

“Yeah, but–” Prompto says, scratching the back of his head. “I mean – it feels different. Like – he’s just – shoving me and punching my arm more the last couple of days. And harder, too. I mean – maybe I’m making too much out of it.” 

Noct thinks about it. There’s definitely been a lot of horseplay the last few days between Gladio and Prompto, but nothing that out of the ordinary. He’d assumed Prompto was into it, but apparently not. 

“Maybe,” he says. “Maybe Gladio’s embarrassed because he was all gooey over you when you were a kitten.”

Prompto brightens up. “He was?” he says. 

“Uh, yeah,” Noct says, and realises that, in all their not-talking about Prompto being a kitten, they haven’t really told him anything that happened. “Here, look.” He pulls out his phone and starts scrolling through pictures of Gladio being adorable with Prompto. 

“Oh, man,” Prompto says. “I wish I’d been there to see it. That is so cute.” Noct thinks he’s cheered up, until Prompto hands the phone back with a sigh. “Guess Gladio likes me better as a kitten,” he says.

Noct frowns thoughtfully. “You _were_ a lot cuter,” he says. 

“Argh!” Prompto says, putting a hand to his heart. “You wound me, sire!” 

And just like that, he’s grinning and playful again.

 _Nailed it_ , Noct thinks, and goes back to his phone.

~

Two days later, they’re in the middle of fighting a couple of voretooths ( _voreteeth?_ Prompto wondered right before they charged) when Noct trips over a t-shirt lying on the ground. It’s Prompto’s t-shirt, and he’s about to call him out for leaving his clothes in inconvenient places when he realises that Prompto’s pants are lying next to the t-shirt. And those two pieces of information connect in his mind to form one word:

 _Shit_. 

“Ignis!” he shouts, turning back to swing at the bigger voretooth, “I think Prompto turned into a kitten again!” 

“Are you sure?” calls Ignis. But the last word is drowned out by a deafening growl. Noct whips round, and sees Gladio in full-on snarling, terrifying Wolfio mode, facing off one of the voretooths. Voreteeth. Whatever. And behind him is a tiny golden kitten. 

“Help Gladio,” Noct calls, and focuses on taking out the voretooth he’s fighting so that Gladio doesn’t have to deal with that as well. The fight seems suddenly a whole lot more urgent than before, and as he warps he can’t help but think about how damn tiny Kitten Prompto is, and how he’s kind of stupid and maybe doesn’t understand that he should stay behind Gladio and not, like, try and climb up a voretooth’s leg or something.

Oh, Shiva.

He buries his sword in the voretooth’s guts, trying not to listen to the intense snarling behind him that’s making shivers run down his spine. Gladio’s got it covered. Prompto’s not so brainless he’s gonna just run out into the fight. Right? Right? 

The voretooth goes down, twitching, and Noct spins just in time to see Gladio rip the other one’s throat out with his teeth. Yeah, OK. Gladio’s definitely got it covered. In fact, even after the voretooth is clearly down and never getting up again, Gladio carries on ripping it to shreds. It’s... kind of gross, to be honest. 

Noct runs over to where he last saw Prompto, panics a bit when he’s not there, and then turns to find Ignis holding him against his chest. Prompto’s fur is spattered with blood and he looks sad and scared. Noct feels immediately like his heart’s about to tear in two, and he reaches out and scritches Prompto’s ears. 

“Hey, little guy,” he says. “It’s OK. No-one’s gonna let them get you.” 

Prompto rubs his head against Noct’s fingers, but he doesn’t purr. A moment later, Gladio bounds up and puts his paws up on Ignis’ shoulders, leaning down to nuzzle Prompto.

“Ex _cuse_ me,” Ignis says, pushing him away with a disgusted look. “Do we need to have a conversation about how much wolf hair shows up on black clothes again?” 

Gladio looks unapologetic. He sits and stares intently at Prompto. 

“Prompto’s getting cat hair on you,” Noct points out. 

“Yes, well – that’s different,” Ignis says. “Prompto was in acute distress.” 

“A _cute_ ,” Noct says, because now that Prompto’s no longer in any danger, he’s realised how adorable Ignis looks cuddling him. He pulls out his phone. 

Ignis sighs heavily, permits himself to be photographed, and then looks at Gladio. 

“Fine,” he says, and leans down to put Prompto between his paws. “But you’re responsible, understand?” 

Gladio barks once, picks Prompto up by the scruff of his neck, and pads off. 

Noct watches him go. “Prompto turned into a kitten again,” he says. 

Ignis pushes his glasses back up his nose and sighs.

“So it would seem,” he says.

~

“Well, that settles it,” Ignis says later, after they’ve made camp (with no help from either Gladio or Prompto). “He’s a werekitten.” 

“Yeah, but–” Noct says, and then can’t think of an objection. It sounds totally stupid, plus Prompto’s transformations aren’t anything like Gladio’s – he doesn’t seem to have control over them, he’s never done it before a few days ago, and he doesn’t remember anything – but on the other hand, turning into a kitten once is maybe a weird accident, but turning into a kitten twice definitely suggests some kind of underlying werekitten-ness.

“Hopefully we can turn him back the same way as last time,” Ignis says. He stands up and goes over to where Gladio is allowing Prompto to chase his tail as he swishes it back and forth. He leans down to pick up Prompto and Gladio growls at him. Not really a threatening growl, but definitely a _I don’t want you to do that_ growl. 

Ignis raises his eyebrows. “Gladio?” he asks. “Do we have a problem?” 

Prompto, oblivious, pounces on Gladio’s tail and starts chewing it. Gladio stares up at Ignis. He lets his teeth show, just a little bit.

“It’s not dangerous, anyway, Specs, so we don’t have to do it right now,” Noct says. It’s kind of stupid, but he just doesn’t want to throw Prompto in the water right now. Not after the poor little guy was so terrified by the voretooth-teeths. 

“Hmph,” Ignis says, standing up and folding his arms. “Well, I’ll get on with dinner.” 

So that’s what he does.

~

That night, Noct turns over in his sleeping bag and stares at Gladio. He’s currently curled around Prompto, and Prompto’s head is sticking up over his haunch, ears twitching. He doesn’t look sleepy in the least. 

“Are you gonna lie on me again tonight?” Noct asks. 

Gladio eyes him, then gives a wolf-y sort of shrug. Prompto chooses that moment to struggle out of Gladio’s embrace and scamper across the floor to Noct. He scrambles up Noct’s stomach, walks along his side up to his shoulder, and then starts nuzzling his neck. 

“Ah,” Noct says, trying to decide whether to push Prompto away or not. “C’mon, man. That tickles.”

Gladio sits up and gives Noct a somewhat baleful stare. Prompto purrs extremely loudly in his ear. 

Noct’s life is weird. 

“Look,” Noct says, picking Prompto up and then depositing him on his chest, “why don’t we just organise this now so that no-one has to wake me up. Right? And maybe you could – _oof_.” His plan to ask Gladio to put less of his weight on Noct’s stomach goes out the window when Gladio puts what feels like all of his weight on Noct’s stomach. “Ignis,” Noct whispers. 

“I’m glad you all worked out a compromise,” says Ignis, and turns out the light. 

Noct closes his eyes in despair. And, since his eyes are closed anyway, he takes the opportunity to go to sleep.

~

The next day, Ignis fills a bowl with water. It’s a pretty small bowl – definitely not big enough to hold the naked human Prompto that will hopefully be the end result of Ignis’ plan. But it’s big enough for Kitten Prompto to be submerged, and Noct hopes that’s good enough. Actually, he kind of hopes Prompto will turn back before they have to dunk him, because he’s not sure he can make himself do it, or even make himself let Ignis do it. 

Apparently, he’s not the only one. When Ignis goes to grab Prompto, Gladio is suddenly there, growling. It’s not a seriously threatening growl, but it’s not a playful growl, either. It’s a growl that says _this could get very serious if you’re not careful_. 

Ignis withdraws his hand and considers Gladio. “I know you understand why I need to do this,” he says. “Instinct is all very well, but right now you’re not so much protecting him as preventing him from being his true self.” 

It’s not the sort of speech that would have worked on human Gladio, and it doesn’t work on Wolfio, either. He just growls again, low in his throat. 

“You’re being ridiculous,” Ignis says. 

Gladio gives no indication that he cares about Ignis’ opinion. 

Ignis sighs. “Noct?” he says. 

Noct stands up. Gladio eyes him. Prompto accidentally gets sideswiped by Gladio’s sweeping tail and falls over with a surprised squeak. 

“I don’t think I can,” Noct says.

Ignis covers his face with his hand. “Am I the only person here who is actually thinking of Prompto’s overall welfare?” he asks. 

Noct remembers how miserable Prompto looked when he was soaked by all the potions. What if they throw him in the water and he doesn’t change back? They’ll have made him miserable for nothing.

“Yeah, pretty much,” he says. 

Ignis sighs heavily. “We’re not going anywhere until we turn him back,” he says. “I will not allow shedding in the Regalia.”

~

Later, Ignis surveys the Regalia with a disgusted expression on his face while Prompto curls around his ankles and purrs. 

“Both of you are cleaning this up once you have the ability to hold a lint brush,” he says. Then, a moment later, he closes his eyes. “Oh, fine,” he says, and picks up Prompto, who mews in delight and rubs his head against Ignis’ arm. 

“Looks like someone made a new friend,” Noct says. 

Ignis glares at him.

~

But the thing is, every time either Ignis or Noct makes a move to try and dunk Prompto in some body of water, Gladio is there. Even Noct gets to the point where he’s ready to do it, because Kitten Prompto is adorable, but human Prompto is his best friend. But Gladio just – won’t allow it. He physically puts himself in the way, or he grabs Prompto by the scruff of the neck and moves him somewhere else, even _hides_ him once, which is ridiculous (and works for about five minutes, until Prompto comes scampering out of the hiding place to try and pounce on Ignis’ foot). And OK, it’s not like Ignis and Noct don’t try. They really do. But neither of them wants to fight Wolfio, and even though both of them think he probably wouldn’t, they don’t know that, not totally 100% for sure. And Gladio’s teeth are really big. Like, seriously big.

“This whole protective instinct was cute to start off with, but this is getting ridiculous,” says Noct after Prompto’s been a kitten for about thirty-six hours. It’s morning, and he’s sitting next to Ignis eating breakfast. Gladio’s out of earshot, so he hopes, although with the wolf ears he’s never really sure. 

“Hm,” Ignis says, sipping his ebony. “I suppose we’re sure it _is_ protective instinct?” 

“What do you mean?” Noct says. “He just doesn’t want Prompto to get dunked. What else could it be?” 

Ignis taps a forefinger against the arm of his chair. “Perhaps he simply – doesn’t want Prompto to turn back,” he says. 

Noct turns to look at him. “Huh?” he says. “That doesn’t make any sense.” Prompto’s cute as a kitten, sure, but he’s way better as a human. Unless – Gladio doesn’t think so? Prompto and Gladio have a teasing relationship, sure, but he’s pretty sure they like each other. Don’t they? The idea that Gladio might prefer Prompto as a cat kind of makes him angry. He glances over at Gladio and frowns. 

“Hm,” Ignis says. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. After all, when Prompto’s a cat, he provides a great deal more physical affection.” 

“Physical – uh, what?” Noct says. “What?” 

Ignis raises an eyebrow. “Affection,” he says. “Surely you’ve noticed.” 

“But – what?” Noct says. “But – why would Gladio–?” 

Ignis stares at him. Noct stares back. He must look as confused as he feels, because after holding his gaze for a long moment, Ignis sighs. 

“I must admit, I’m a little surprised,” he says. “I know you’re not always the most observant of people, but I thought you would have noticed by now.” 

“Noticed... what?” Noct asks. 

“Gladio’s attraction to Prompto,” Ignis says. 

Noct chokes on his coffee. 

“I’ll take that as a no, then, shall I?” Ignis asks. 

“But–” Noct says, thinking about how much Gladio picks on Prompto. How much he teases him and wrestles with him and chases him around. How Prompto thought Gladio was mad because he was doing it even more than usual.

How he saw Gladio spooning Prompto in the middle of the night.

“Ah, I think I see light dawning,” Ignis says. 

Noct looks at Gladio. He’s lying on his side with Prompto curled up under his chin. He looks – really relaxed. 

“Wow,” he says. 

“Indeed,” says Ignis. “And when he’s a wolf, his instinctual nature frequently overrides his rational one, as we know. Insofar as Gladio has a rational nature, anyway.” 

“So... he won’t let us turn Prompto back even though he knows he can’t be a kitten forever, because he just instinctively wants him that way so they can – what, cuddle?” Noct says. He feels a pang of – something. Annoyance, or something. Gladio manages to be a dick even when he’s a wolf. 

“Something like that,” Ignis says. “It’s certainly a problem.”

Noct stares at Gladio. Really annoying. Definitely annoying.

“Yeah,” he says. “It is.”


	3. Chapter 3

That night, Noct can’t get to sleep. 

He spends some time wondering if he’s sick, and some other time wondering if he should wake Ignis up to get him to check if he’s sick. But most of the time, he’s just _very aware_ of Wolfio curled up next to him, and of the fact that Prompto is once again tucked up against Wolfio’s belly. It’s – _annoying_. Like, isn’t that annoying? It’s – rude, is what it is. To – hog Prompto like that, when he’s being a cute kitten. And to take advantage of his cute kitten-ness and general lack of smarts while in kitten mode to – _cuddle_ him, like he’s some kind of – _pet_.

Noct’s annoyed, that’s all. And he has good reasons. Really good reasons. And he can’t sleep, and that makes him extra annoyed with Gladio for being so – annoying. 

And that’s why Noct is still awake some time after midnight when Prompto extricates himself from Gladio’s embrace and comes trotting over to bother Noct. It’s not like it’s the first time it’s happened, but this time Noct is _really_ not prepared to get squashed by Gladio the whole night. So as soon as he feels Prompto’s paws on his arm, he scoops him up, struggles out of his sleeping bag, and creeps out of the tent. 

Outside, it’s cold enough to see his breath. The moon is huge and silvery, and there’s enough light to see the bowl of water that Ignis rather dispiritedly left out just in case they might be able to get Prompto away from Gladio for a few minutes.

Well, now’s Noct’s chance. 

He hugs Prompto close. “Sorry, little guy,” he whispers, stroking his ears. Prompto makes a trilling sound that is so adorable Noct almost loses his nerve. But no: as soon as Gladio notices Prompto’s gone, he’ll lose his chance. So he takes a deep breath, takes Prompto by the scruff of his neck, and plunges him into the water. 

Prompto’s hiss is surprisingly loud for such a tiny cat; definitely loud enough to wake Gladio, who immediately starts barking in the tent. And in the meantime–

–in the meantime, Noct is trying to cling on to a bedraggled, struggling, wailing kitten, who is very much not a human being.

“Shit,” Noct mutters, just as Gladio comes bursting out of the tent. 

~

It takes a little while for Ignis to calm everything down after that. Well, mostly to calm Gladio down. Noct tries, but Gladio’s pissed at him and also being extra-wolfy, which tends to make him less inclined towards forgiveness, and Noct’s kind of pissed himself, because he managed to make Prompto miserable and did’t even change him back in the process, and also because Gladio’s just being a dick right now. So there’s a stand-off, where Noct refuses to give Prompto to Gladio, even though Prompto definitely doesn’t seem like he wants to be cuddled by Noct right now, and Gladio growls a lot and acts like a big dumb macho idiot, and Ignis talks in a calm reasonable voice that’s just skating the edge of _I will turn this car around right now_.

Anyway, eventually Noct’s concern for the fact that Prompto is drenched and shivering and it’s really damn cold out wins out, and they come to a compromise whereby Ignis takes Prompto and wraps him in a towel, and they get the fire going again and settle him in a camp chair in front of it. The rest of them settle around it, too, like it’s evening and not two am. Gladio stays to watch Prompto, and Noct stays to watch Prompto, and Ignis presumably stays to stop Gladio and Noct from fighting over who’s watching Prompto. Meanwhile, Prompto looks thoroughly pathetic and unhappy, and then fairly shortly after that seems to forget all about being unhappy, and curls up in his towel to go to sleep. So at least someone gets some sleep that night. 

~

Noct is woken up in the morning by a hand on his shoulder. Or, really, by the fact that the hand is shaking him pretty hard. He’s not the lightest of sleepers, after all. When he wakes up, though, for once he doesn’t really want to go back to sleep immediately. Or, no, that’s not true: he does want to go back to sleep immediately, but he wants to go back to sleep somewhere that’s significantly more comfortable, where he’s lying down, doesn’t have a huge crick in his neck, and isn’t freezing cold. So he opens his eyes, ready to find his way to a proper bed, and sees Ignis standing over him, and beyond him, on the other side of the dying fire, Prompto, sprawled naked in the camp chair with the towel over his face, snoring. Gladio – in wolf mode still – is curled at his feet, also snoring. Noct stares at them for a long moment, feeling like it’s very early in the morning for this kind of thing. Then he wonders if he should take a picture.

Prompto shivers, then jerks upright. He fights with the towel for a moment before managing to pull it from his face. He stares at Noct, clearly not quite awake yet. Then he shivers again and looks down at himself. 

“Fuck,” he whispers, and drops the towel over his crotch. 

Noct decides not to take a picture, after all.

~

It’s not a good day, on the whole. Noct feels like shit from his severe lack of sleep, and Prompto seems to have caught a cold, which Noct feels like shit about, too, because it’s not too hard to draw a line between _my best friend dunked me in freezing water while I was naked and defenceless and also a kitten_ and _now I have a cold_. Not that Prompto does draw that line, either explicitly or even by hinting. Gladio does, though. Repeatedly. 

“Man up, beanpole,” he says, smacking Prompto on the back after a particularly vigorous bout of sneezing. “If you weren’t so skinny that dip in the pool wouldn’t have been a problem.” 

Prompto rubs his nose and gives Gladio a half-hearted, watery glare. “Not all of us can be meatheads,” he says, but there’s not much conviction there, and what effect there is is ruined by him sneezing halfway through the last word.

Shit, Noct feels terrible. And he hates Gladio.

“Anyway, speaking of,” Gladio says, so casually that it immediately sets alarm bells ringing in Noct’s mind, “if you want I could help you learn to manage the whole transformation thing. You know, since I’ve got experience.” 

Prompto brightens up. “What, like – wolfing out lessons?” he asks.

Gladio shrugs, watching Prompto out of the corners of his eyes. “Kittening out,” he says. 

Prompto briefly looks gloomy again, but seconds later, all gloom is gone, like a cloud passing over the sun. “I mean – yeah, that’d be great! You’d really do that?” 

“Why not?” Gladio says. “Can’t be much more annoying than having to deal with you doing it at random.” 

“Thanks, big guy,” Prompto says, grinning broadly. And then sneezing again. 

Noct glowers at them both. Why the fuck is Gladio being so – overbearing? He should just leave Prompto alone. 

“Hey, Prompto,” he says, “come here.” 

Prompto looks over at him, then immediately gets up and comes over. Noct doesn’t miss the way Gladio’s eyes follow him. He pulls out his phone and shows Prompto some random picture of a moogle he found online, and Prompto makes that breathy high-pitched noise he makes when something’s cute. Noct bumps his shoulder against Prompto’s, then sneaks a look at Gladio. Gladio’s watching them. Noct bumps Prompto’s shoulder again. 

“Here, let me show you something else,” he says.

~

Luckily, Prompto’s cold dies down pretty fast, and by the next morning he’s back to his old frustratingly-chirpy-at-8-in-the-morning self. Noct puts the pillow over his head when Prompto calls his name and drifts in half-sleep, waiting for Promptop either to escalate the situation or to give up and go away. But neither of those things happens. Instead, what happens is Gladio.

“Hey,” Gladio says, somewhere above and behind Noct. “If Sleeping Ugly here’s being stubborn, we could get started on those transformation lessons.” 

“Oh – cool,” Prompto says. “Yeah, I mean – I guess we’ve got a bit of time. Here?” 

“No, let’s–” Gladio starts, and then Noct pulls the pillow off his head and sits up. 

“Wha–?” he says. “Time is it?” 

His eyes are blurred with sleep, but he can still see Prompto’s broad grin.

“Glad you decided to join us!” Prompto says. “Iggy’s making breakfast. Come on, sleepyhead.” 

He reaches out a hand, and Noct takes it, hauls himself to his feet, and follows Prompto out of the tent. 

It takes Gladio a while to follow.

~

That afternoon, they get pretty caught up chasing down a bounty. During the fight, Noct find his mind constantly drifting to the last one, when Prompto kittened out and might easily have been killed, and he fights as close to him as he can. Gladio’s doing the same, he notices, and even though it’s a good thing, because if Prompto goes for a walk on the wild side Gladio is well-equipped to protect him, he’s still annoyed. He doesn’t get why Gladio’s so damn pushy about his crush. He definitely doesn’t think Prompto is Gladio’s type. And anyway, Gladio’s not boyfriend material, not the way he chases after every woman they meet, and half the men.

Anyway, Prompto doesn’t turn into a kitten, and in the evening they drive into town to collect their gil. Ignis says they have enough for a motel, and as soon as they get into the room, Prompto flops dramatically onto one of the beds. 

“Man, I’m beat,” he says. “I’m just gonna lie here forever.” 

Ignis, sitting gracefully down in a chair beside the bed, raises an eyebrow. “I’m not sure we have enough gil to rent this room forever,” he says. 

“Don’t shatter my dreams, Iggy,” Prompto said, voice muffled by the pillow. 

Gladio takes a step towards the bed Prompto’s lying on, and Noct darts forward, a little faster than he’d intended, and drops into the space beside Prompto.

“Mind if I join?” he asks. 

Prompto makes a muffled noise that’s probably some kind of agreement. Gladio crosses his arms and looks put out. Noct laces his hands behind his head and stares up at the ceiling. 

“I think I could lie here forever, too,” he says.

~

That night, Noct sleeps well. He’s sharing with Prompto, which means there’s plenty of space, but even so, in the middle of the night, he half wakes up to find that Prompto’s sleeping curled up with his head on Noct’s chest. The reason this wakes Noct up is that Prompto’s purring in his ear. It’s – actually kinda loud. 

Noct opens one eye. Prompto is definitely not a cat right now. But he’s purring nonetheless. And cuddling Noct. It’s really – warm and soothing.

Noct closes his eye again. He thinks about it briefly, in a half-asleep way, and decides he’s OK with it. 

The sound of purring lulls him back to sleep.

~

Next time he’s woken up, it’s by something much less pleasant – namely, the sound of Gladio crashing about getting dressed – or semi-dressed, as apparently he’s going for the shirtless look today – and shaking Prompto awake.

“We running, or what?” Gladio says. 

Prompto groans and shifts beside Noct, then gets up. Noct keeps his eyes closed. He’s pretty sure he can get back to sleep. In fact, at this point, it’s his main ambition in life. 

It’s not until Prompto and Gladio are heading out the door that Noct’s sleepy mind notices that Prompto and Gladio are heading out the door. Together. Alone. And somehow – for some reason – that causes him to wake up fully, even though conditions have just become perfect for him to go back to sleep. He wakes up, and sits up, opening his mouth to say _hey_ –

But they’ve already gone. 

Noct sits in the bed, staring stupidly at the door. OK, they’ve gone. They’ve gone... uh, running, he thinks. That’s normal, right? So why does he feel bad about it? 

He’s still trying to figure it out (and contemplating going back to sleep) when Ignis comes through the door, laden with bags of food. 

“Good morning,” he says. “You’re awake early.” 

“Uh,” Noct says. He’s not completely sure he is awake, actually.

Ignis starts unpacking his bags at the table. “Where are the others?” 

“They – went running?” Noct says. 

“Did they?” Ignis says. “I’m rather surprised you let them out of your sight.” 

“What?” Noct asks. “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

Ignis sighs and turns to face Noct. “Forgive me for presuming,” he says. “I was always under the impression that your feelings towards Prompto were – entirely platonic in nature. But it seems I was wrong.” 

Noct stares at him. “What?” he says, and then, because mornings are when he’s at his most intelligent, “Uh, what?” 

Ignis folds his arms. “Since you learned of Gladio’s attraction to Prompto, you have been doing your level best to prevent them spending any time together. I can only assume it’s because you’re attracted to Prompto yourself.” 

“What?” Noct says again. He feels like this conversation make no sense. “No, I haven’t! What are you talking about?” 

“So you’re not attracted to Prompto?” Ignis asks. He looks extremely sceptical.

“No!” Noct says. “What the fuck? No, I’m not.” 

Ignis eyes him for a moment. “Hm,” he says, and then turns back to unpacking his shopping. Noct stares at his back, feeling like he’s stepped into a parallel universe. Yeah, OK, maybe he’s asked Prompto to do something with him instead of Gladio once or twice, but – Prompto’s his best friend. Gladio can get his own best friends. He can’t expect Noct to stop hanging out with Prompto just because he wants to shove him around and pretend that’s flirting, or something. 

“I’m not attracted to Prompto,” he says to Ignis’ back. 

Ignis doesn’t turn round. “Whatever you say, Highness,” he says.

Noct closes his eyes. He has a feeling this is not going to be a good day.

~

After that, Noct thinks about it. He thinks about it when Gladio and Prompto come back, sweaty and laughing, resulting in a twinge of annoyance in Noct’s stomach. He thinks about it when he’s in the car, watching Prompto’s profile from the back seat. He thinks about it when they’re setting up camp and Prompto trips over one of the guy ropes and falls flat on his face, leading to Gladio laughing so hard he has a coughing fit. Noct isn’t even annoyed by that, because he’s laughing pretty hard himself. But when Gladio goes to help Prompto up, he steps forward and does it himself, even though it means practically shouldering Gladio out of the way. And later on, he sits in between Prompto and Gladio, and maybe before he wouldn’t have really noticed that he’d sat there, but since Ignis said – _that_ this morning, he’s been noticing a lot of stuff. 

Is he attracted to Prompto?

He thinks about it a lot. Really a lot. At first, he thinks it’s ridiculous. Then he thinks maybe it would explain some things. Then he spends some time experimentally getting close to Prompto. He nudges him a lot. He ruffles his hair. At night, he doesn’t even have to try, because apparently Prompto’s inner kitten is triggered by sleep, and he wakes up to find Prompto snore-purring in his ear yet again. But this time, instead of going back to sleep, he forces himself to wake up properly (which just goes to show how seriously he’s taking this whole thing) and consider how he feels about it. 

Does he want to have sex with Prompto?

 _Ugh, no_. That would be weird. It would be so weird. 

He pulls his arm out from under Prompto, because it’s starting to go numb, and then, for lack of anything else to do with it, puts it around him. Prompto sighs and purrs and does this weird thing with his hands on Noct’s chest which he can’t explain until he realises that he’s kneading his paws. Which is really bizarre, yet somehow also super cute. Noct feels a sudden surge of affection. He kind of wants to wake Prompto up to tell him that he’s his BFF. But that would be weird, and also definitely put a dent in his general cool-guy demeanour. (Gladio occasionally declares that Noct’s cool-guy demeanour is all in his head, and actually he’s just a goofy dork, but Prompto assures him that Gladio’s just jealous.)

And then it hits him: he’s not attracted to Prompto. Prompto is his best friend. But right here, right now, with no-one else awake, he can be honest with himself. That’s all it is. Except that _all it is_ makes it sound somehow – lesser. And it’s not. The way Noct feels about Prompto – about Ignis, and his dad, and Luna, and yeah, Gladio, even though Gladio’s being a dick lately – if those feelings are lesser, he kind of hopes he never feels anything greater, because he thinks it might make his heart explode. 

Prompto shifts and purrs by his ear, and Noct sighs and closes his eyes. Problem solved. 

Time for a nap.

~

The next day, Noct feels – better. Lighter, somehow, like figuring out exactly where he stands when it comes to Prompto – figuring out that he stands in the same place he’s always stood, and hopefully always will stand – has made everything more straightforward. They pack up the tent, move on, kill a few things, argue a bit, and everything’s just – cool, and easy. And when evening comes, and they set up camp, Noct feels pretty chilled out. It’s a beautiful evening, the sun sinking into an inferno of red and orange clouds. Noct watches the sky and wonders what’s happening back home right now.

“Hey,” Gladio says to Prompto, “I was thinking we could–” 

“Hey, you wanna go take some pictures of the sunset?” Noct says. “I bet it looks great from the top of that hill over there. We can get back before the daemons come out.” 

He points, and Prompto bounces to his feet. “Do you even have to ask?” he says. “We gotta go now, though, or we’re gonna miss it.” 

“All right, all right,” Noct says, laughing a little. “I’m coming.” 

He follows Prompto out of the haven. Gladio’s glaring at him, and Noct remembers that he interrupted him. But whatever, the sunset’s important, right? Not like it’s going to stick around forever. Anyway, Gladio can just deal with it. 

Apparently, though, Gladio doesn’t just deal with it, or at least, he doesn’t deal with it very well. Because when Noct and Prompto get back, Prompto waxing lyrical about the beauty of the sunset and Noct half-listening and half just enjoying the general feel of the evening air and the beauty of the stars starting to come out on the horizon – yeah, everything’s pretty chill, until Gladio suddenly looms out of the dusk and grabs Noct’s arm.

“Hey,” he says, voice low and deep. “I gotta talk to you.” 

Noct pauses and looks at Prompto, who shrugs. 

“I’ll go help Iggy with dinner,” Prompto says, and disappears off into the gloom. 

Noct turns to Gladio. “Yeah?” he says. “What’s up?” 

“What’s _up_ is you,” Gladio says, and now his voice deepens further into something that sounds very much like anger. “What do you think you’re doing?” 

“Uh – I don’t know, nothing,” Noct says, feeling that annoyance rise in his gut. Why’s Gladio got to be so damn alpha male about everything, anyway? “Am I supposed to be doing something?” 

“Yeah, how about not cockblocking me every five minutes?” Gladio says. 

Noct splutters. “What?” he says. “I’m not – _cockblocking_ you. What are you talking about?” 

“Yeah?” Gladio says. “Could have fooled me.” He takes a step closer. “Listen, if you want Prompto, just – take him, already. It’s not like I don’t know I don’t have a chance against you. You don’t have to rub my face in it.” 

Noct shakes his head. OK, so Ignis said something similar a few days ago, but – Noct figured it all out. He’s not attracted to Prompto, so Ignis was just reading the situation totally wrong. And yet, now here’s Gladio, reading it wrong in the exact same way. Fuck, have they been talking about it? Yeah, that’s gotta be it.

“You’ve been talking to Ignis,” he says.

“Huh?” Gladio says. “What’s Ignis got to do with any of this?” 

“I mean, this is all him, right?” Noct says. “He’s got this idea that I’m – I dunno, into Prompto or whatever. But I’m not, so – whatever he told you, he’s wrong.”

Gladio stares at him in silence for a moment. “You’re not into Prompto?” he says.

“Not like that, anyway,” Noct says. “He’s my friend.” 

Gladio doesn’t say anything, and Noct thinks he’s solved the problem. He thinks he’s solved it right up until Gladio suddenly shoves his shoulder – not really hard, but hard enough for it to be clear it wasn’t a friendly shove.

“Fuck you, asshole,” Gladio says, then spins on his heel and starts stomping back to the camp. 

Noct jumps after him, getting pretty pissed himself now, and grabs him by the arm. “Hey!” he says. “What the fuck? What’s your problem?” 

Gladio turns to face him, and even though it’s pretty dark now, it’s hard to mistake the anger on his face. “ _My_ problem?” he says. “ _My_ problem is you acting like an entitled little shit, that’s my problem. You’re not into Prompto? Fine. But apparently you don’t want anyone else to have a chance with him. So, what? You just want to keep him for yourself, even though you don’t even want him?” He shakes his head and jabs Noct’s chest with his index finger. “Fuck you, Noct. Fish or cut bait, but you don’t get to just own people, even if you are the prince.” 

Noct stares at him, flabbergasted and on his way to furious, but then he hears footsteps, and Prompto appears out of the darkness. 

“Uh, guys, are you OK?” he says. “Whatever it is, I’m sure if you just talk it out–” 

“Shut up, Prompto,” Noct snaps, at the same time as Gladio says, “Stay out of this.” 

There’s a brief moment of silence. 

And then Prompto turns into a kitten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, oops, a tiny bit of angst got in there anyway. What can I say, I can't help myself.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to anyone who got the notification email for this chapter multiple times! AO3 has been being really weird and glitchy on me today...

“Shit,” Noct says, and jumps forward, racing to grab Kitten Prompto, because oh shit, he’s suddenly aware of the fact that they’re not in the haven and it’s dark and Prompto is a fucking _kitten_. But by the time he gets to where Prompto’s clothes are, Prompto has disappeared into the darkness. Shiva, it’s so dark. Shit shit _shit_.

“Gladio–” he starts, but of course when he turns, he finds that Gladio has wolfed out and is glaring at him, growling deep in his throat. Noct closes his eyes. 

“Just – track him or something,” he says. “Don’t be an ass.” 

Gladio bounds forward, and for a moment Noct thinks he’s going to get a faceful of angry wolf, but Gladio pushes past him, sniffs briefly at Prompto’s clothes, and then takes off through the undergrowth. 

“Wait–” Noct starts, but Gladio doesn’t wait. Which, OK, it’s good. The faster Gladio finds Prompto and gets him back inside the haven, the better. Noct stumbles after him, almost tripping a bunch of times, getting branches in the face, calling out Prompto’s name. At least it’s easy to follow the sound of Gladio crashing through the brush ahead of him. But for every second of crashing, it’s one more second where Noct gets to imagine tiny Kitten Prompto, lost in the dark, running into something awful. Or even just falling in a hole or a river or something, because that’s definitely something Kitten Prompto would do.

Fuck. Noct’s pretty sure he’s only a kitten because Noct and Gladio yelled at him. This is all Noct’s fault. If Prompto gets hurt–

“Prompto!” Noct yells, and then suddenly he bursts out of the scrubby trees into an open space. An open space with a circle of rocks and a fire and a tent, and Ignis standing by the fire, holding a tiny golden kitten and giving Wolfio a look of extreme disapproval. 

“Oh, thank all the Astrals,” Noct says, stumbling to a stop and holding his arms out for Prompto. “You found him.” 

“I did, indeed,” Ignis says. He turns his disapproval on Noct, making no move towards giving him Prompto. “He appears to be a kitten, which is somewhat odd, since he was certainly a human being when he went out to look for the two of you.” 

Noct, heart still thundering and residual adrenaline making him feel nauseous, doesn’t even bother to protest his innocence. “Yeah, we – I fucked up,” he says. He keeps his arms extended. “Can I have him?” 

“I rather think that neither of you is responsible enough to look after him when he’s in such a vulnerable condition,” Ignis says, and then turns on his heel and stalks over to the fire, where he sits down and starts scratching Prompto’s ears. Prompto, tucked in the crook of Ignis’ arm, closes his eyes and starts purring. 

Noct lowers his arms. He rubs his forehead and sighs. Prompto’s OK. But what if he hadn’t been? 

Gladio looks round at him. He’s been weirdly quiet this whole time. Maybe even Wolfio isn’t willing to go up against full-on righteous-wrath Ignis. Noct knows he sure isn’t.

“We kind of suck,” Noct says to Gladio. Gladio makes a movement like a wolfy kind of shrug, and then goes to lie down by the fire and stare mournfully at Prompto. Noct heads over to do the same thing, but Ignis glances at him.

“Go and fetch their clothes,” he says. “As you can see, I’m currently unable to move.” 

Noct is pretty sure that Ignis could manage to collect two sets of clothing while still carrying Prompto. Or he could just give Prompto to Noct, that would be cool, too. But he’s not going to push his luck right now, so he grabs a flashlight out of the armiger and heads off to try and figure out where the hell Gladio and Prompto left their clothes. 

Sometimes, he feels like his life is really weird.

~

That night, when Ignis stands up to go to bed – Prompto half asleep in the crook of his elbow – Gladio gets up and comes to block his way into the tent. He sits, staring up at Ignis. There’s no growling, no baring of teeth. He’s just – there. 

Ignis raises an eyebrow. “I see no evidence that you’ve done anything to rectify your previous behaviour,” he says. It sounds like a perfectly neutral sentence, but the way that Ignis says it makes Noct feel like he’s taken a breath of freezing air. “What’s more, it’s very hard for us to make any headway on the subject when you insist on removing yourself from the possibility of adult communication.”

Gladio looks defiant, but also – kind of guilty. Definitely guilty. It’s the same expression Noct is pretty sure he’s been wearing himself every time Ignis has looked at him this evening. Well, except for the defiance part.

“Yes, well,” Ignis says. “Prompto and I are going to bed.” 

And he skirts around Gladio and disappears into the tent.

Gladio makes a displeased noise in his throat that Noct’s never heard before. It’s like, half growl, half whimper. Then he follows Ignis into the tent.

Noct sighs. He really hopes Prompto turns back into a human soon. But he also just – doesn’t know what to do with the whole Gladio thing. He’s still mad at Gladio for accusing him of – what, basically trying to keep Prompto to himself? He’s not doing that. That’s not even a thing. Prompto’s not, like, a doll or whatever. If he wants to hang out with Gladio, he’ll hang out with Gladio. Noct’s not _making_ Prompto hang out with him; they’re just BFFs, and Gladio needs to deal with that. 

Noct shakes his head. He really thought he’d figured out all his feelings relating to the whole Prompto-Gladio thing, but now it seems even more murky than before. Plus, he feels weirdly like he did something wrong, even though he knows he didn’t (except accidentally making Prompto turn into a kitten outside a haven at night – that one’s definitely at least partially on him). It’s just – all really confusing. 

He climbs into the tent. Ignis is on the far right, as usual, Prompto curled up on his chest. Wolfio’s taking up most of the space where Noct usually sleeps, next to Ignis. He’s not lying on Ignis’ stomach, Noct notices. Maybe he needs to cultivate some Ignis-like frostiness to avoid getting crushed in the night. 

But Prompto doesn’t come over to him that night. He seems perfectly content to sleep on Ignis’ chest. Which is cool. Noct is happy not to get woken up by either a tiny kitten or a giant wolf. 

He’s totally happy with that.

~

In the morning, Noct struggles out of the tent to find Ignis, cup of Ebony in hand, dragging one of Noct’s fishing lures across the grass, while Prompto chases after it in the most stupidly adorable way. Wolfio is lying nearby, head on his paws, watching. Noct stands outside the tent, scratching the back of his head. Is Ignis – _playing_ with Prompto?

“Ah, Noct,” Ignis says. “Glad you finally decided to join us.” He seems a lot less pissed off this morning, which is definitely good, but still. Noct watches him chuckle indulgently as Prompto pounces on his ankle and then chews his pants cuff, and feels like he’s in upside-down world.

Ignis picks Prompto up and used a forefinger to tickle his belly. “Aren’t you a little rascal,” he says. Then he tucks him into the crook of his elbow and turns to face Noct and Gladio. “Now. We need to come up with a strategy. Gladio, it would be most helpful if you would return to a more anthropic form.” 

Gladio stares at Ignis without lifting his head. He definitely does not return to a more anthropic form. 

Ignis sighs. “There’s no need to sulk,” he says. “Really, you’re acting like a child.” 

Gladio, though, doesn’t seem to care very much about what Ignis thinks. 

Ignis pinches the bridge of his nose. “Fine,” he says. “I’ll permit you to look after Prompto _if_ you return to your human form.” 

“Hey!” Noct says, because he definitely feels like Gladio’s getting off easy on this one – how come Noct doesn’t get offered a deal where he gets to cuddle Prompto? – but he’s too late: as soon as the words are out of Ignis’ mouth, Gladio wolfs in, scrambles to his feet, and holds out his hand for Prompto.

“At least put some clothes on, first,” Ignis says, sounding a tiny bit exasperated. “And behave like an adult this time, please.” 

Gladio stalks off to find his clothes. Noct turns to Ignis. 

“How come I don’t get to hold Prompto?” he says, uncomfortably aware that his tone sounds kind of whiny. “I can behave like an adult, too.”

Ignis raises an eyebrow. 

“Yes, well,” he says. “I’ll believe that when I see it.” 

~

Gladio comes back, at least partially clothed, Ignis hands over Prompto (totally unfair), and the four of them sit down to come up with a strategy. Well, Ignis, Gladio and Noct sit down to come up with a strategy. Prompto sits down to wind his way around Gladio’s neck while purring up a storm. (Totally unfair.)

“Now,” Ignis says, “by all accounts you were both rather – sharp to Prompto last night, immediately before he turned into a kitten. Is that correct?” 

Gladio grunts. Noct scratches the back of his head. “Uh, yeah,” he says. “We may have – yelled at him a little.” 

Ignis nods, tapping his chin. “And the last time was during the fight with the voretooth pack,” he says. “Did anyone see him in the actual moment of transformation that time?” 

“No,” Noct says. Gladio shakes his head – carefully, because Prompto is now sitting on top of it. 

“Still, I imagine it must have been rather stressful for him,” Ignis says. “But that’s not consistent with the first occasion.” He frowns at Gladio. “You did say that he transformed with no external prompting whatsoever, as I recall?” 

Gladio shifts a little in his chair and reaches up to grab Prompto from the top of his head and pull him in to his chest. “Yeah,” he says. “I said that.” 

Ignis waits for a moment, but Gladio doesn’t say anything else. Ignis raises an eyebrow.

“Would you care to revise that statement?” he says. 

Gladio seems very invested in scratching Prompto’s head for a moment. Then he sighs.

“Look, it was nothing,” he says. “I just shoved him and he tripped over the tarp like the clumsy doof he is, and by the time he hit the ground he was a kitten.” He hunches his shoulders a little. “I shove him all the time, so it can’t have been that anyway.” 

“Can’t it,” Ignis says. He sits, staring at Gladio. Gladio manages to stare back for a few seconds. Then he looks at Noct. Then at the ground. Then at his knees. 

“He’s a klutz,” he says, hugging Prompto closer in to his chest. “He trips and falls over stuff all the time. So now it’s my fault that he’s kittenified?” 

Ignis sighs a frustrated-sounding sigh. “It’s not about whose fault it is,” he says. “Although it certainly would have been useful if you’d thought to mention this information earlier.” He taps his knee thoughtfully. “In any case, given what we know, it seems likely that Prompto’s transformations are triggered by stress in some way.”

“But we get into stressful situations all the time,” Noct says. “How come he’s only done it a couple of times?” 

“Three times, by my count,” Ignis says. He doesn’t say anything like _and the last one was your fault, Noct_ , but that doesn’t stop Noct from feeling terrible. He wishes Prompto was – Prompto so he could apologise. “In any case,” Ignis continues, “I imagine it involves a delicate balance of psychology and hormones. However, I profess no expertise in the field of catanthropy.” 

Noct stares at Ignis. “That’s not a word,” he says.

“And I suppose you have a superior alternative in mind?” Ignis asks. 

Noct doesn’t, so he shuts up.

“Now,” Ignis says, “it seems to me that if, indeed, Prompto’s transformations are stress-related, we will need to help him learn how to control his stress levels as much as he can. And in the mean-time, we will need to avoid putting him in stressful situations.” 

“Uh, like I said, we get into stressful situations all the time,” Noct says. 

“Well, perhaps we’ll have to leave him behind while we go hunting until he’s gained better control,” Ignis says. 

“He’s not gonna like that,” Gladio says. Noct notices that his eyes are still wolfy, even though the rest of him is human. He’s never seen that before. 

“None of us like it, Gladio,” Ignis says. “But some temporary inconvenience is much preferable to Prompto being on the battlefield in such a defenceless form.” 

Gladio doesn’t have much to say to that. Neither does Noct. He’s kind of distracted by the fact that Prompto is peeping over Gladio’s elbow, staring at him. He looks so soft. 

“Isn’t it my turn to hold Prompto?” Noct asks.

Gladio glances at him. “Who says you get a turn?” he asks. 

Noct’s about to say something that is definitely going to sound pretty whiny, when Ignis speaks again.

“Now, given our situation, I would imagine the best person to help teach Prompto how to deal with the stress is Gladio,” he says. 

Gladio sits up a little. So does Noct.

“What?” he says. “Since when is Gladio any good at, like, emotional shit?” 

“I suppose you think you could do a better job?” Ignis asks.

Noct opens his mouth to say that of course he could, because Prompto’s his _best friend_ , but Ignis apparently didn’t expect an answer to the question because he just steamrolls right over him. “And besides, Gladio has experience with dealing with his own transformations, and helping Iris learn how to deal with hers. He’s clearly the best candidate.” 

Gladio looks smug. Noct feels – really pissed off. Gladio’s as much to blame for Prompto being a kitten right now as he is – more so, since he’s the one who picked a fight with Noct in the first place – but now Gladio gets to cuddle Prompto _and_ he gets to spend a ton of time with him once he’s human again? How is that fair? And if they spend a ton of time, together, then he’s going to, like – hit on Prompto, and maybe Prompto’s going to fall for it, and that make Noct feel – super pissed off. But he can’t think of any arguments against it that don’t sound stupid, so instead, he takes a different tack.

“OK, but we still have no idea how to get him to turn back,” he says. “I mean, that’s more important, right?” 

At that moment, the sleepy kitten in Gladio’s arms disappears, and is replaced by a naked, flailing Prompto.

“Whoa,” Gladio says, doing his best to keep hold of Prompto. 

“Waaargh the hell?” Prompto says, flails some more, and ends up falling off the chair onto the grass. He sits there for a second, blinking, then looks down at himself.

“Ah!” he says. Then he looks up and sees the three of them staring at him. “ _Ah!_ ” he says, jumps to his feet, and bolts for the tent.

There’s a silence. Then Gladio peers down at his chair.

“Huh,” he says. “These things are pretty sturdy.” 

~

Later that evening, Noct is sitting at the edge of the haven playing with his phone when Prompto comes and drops down next to him. He doesn’t say anything for a minute. Noct stops playing with his phone anyway. He’s been avoiding Prompto since he turned back into a person. Not that it’s particularly easy to avoid someone when you’re confined to a twenty-foot wide circle that also contains that person, but still. He’s definitely been giving it his all. 

Prompto nudges his shoulder. “You OK?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Noct says. He’s still staring at his phone, even though he’s not doing anything with it any more. “Why wouldn’t I be?” 

Prompto shrugs. “You’re pretty quiet,” he says. 

“Just tired,” Noct says. 

There’s a silence. It’s kind of uncomfortable. Noct never has uncomfortable silences with Prompto.

“Iggy says the kitten thing is triggered by stress,” Prompto says. 

Noct swallows. “Yeah,” he says. “That’s what he thinks.” 

“Weird,” Prompto says. “I don’t feel like I’ve been super stressed lately.” 

Noct doesn’t answer. There’s another uncomfortable silence. 

“Iggy says I’m kind of dumb when I’m a kitten,” Prompto says. 

“No, you’re not dumb,” Noct says. “You’re just–” He tries to think of a way to put it that won’t sound like _dumb_. “Uh – I mean, you’re not – you’re – Yeah, OK, you’re kind of a little bit dumb.” 

Prompto leans back, bumping his shoulder against Noct’s and staring up at the sky. “Man,” he says, “if one of you turned into a cute, dumb kitten on the regular, it would be amazing. I’d just – totally get all the cuddles, and play stupid games with you, and take a zillion pictures.” He sighs. “How come I’m the one who doesn’t get to play with the kitten?” 

“You don’t remember anything at all about it?” Noct asks. 

Prompto shrugs. “Sorta. It’s just – like a wash of bright colours and weird smells and feeling really – uh, warm and safe, I guess.” 

“Safe?” Noct says. He feels like Prompto hasn’t been safe a whole lot when he’s been a kitten, what with the voretooth and the near-drowning and the being outside the haven at night thing. 

“Yeah, pretty much,” Prompto says. He frowns a little. “Ignis wouldn’t be dumb if he was a kitten, though.” 

Noct tries to imagine Kitten Ignis. It’s – kind of impossible. “What, and I would?” he asks. 

“Uh, you know,” Prompto says. “Yeah. You’d be dumb and sleepy and super cuddly and fully adorable.” He sighs dreamily. “Who do I have to petition to get this kitten thing switched to you, anyway?” 

“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” Noct mutters. Still, things seem easier between them now. The weird tension’s gone. He wonders if Prompto ever even noticed it in the first place. “Hey,” he says, fiddling with the hem of his t-shirt. “Do you – remember why you turned into a kitten this time around?”

Prompto shrugs. “Nope. I remember going to check you guys were OK, and then next thing I know, I’m naked in Gladio’s lap.” He coughs. “Oh, man, I definitely promised myself I was never going to bring that up again.” 

Noct smiles a little, but he’s too on edge to laugh. “It was because–” He takes a deep breath. “It was because I yelled at you.” He almost adds _Gladio did, too_ , but he feels like being that petty right now is definitely going to undermine his attempted apology. 

“Huh?” Prompto says. “Seriously?” 

Noct swallows. “Yeah,” he says. 

“Wow.” Prompto rubs the back of his head. “Dude. I’m really not – normally that sensitive.” 

Noct frowns at him. “What?” he says. 

“I mean – I don’t get this catastrophe thing,” Prompto says. “I’m sorry, that must have been super weird.” 

Noct blinks at Prompto. Is he – apologising? Noct’s the one who’s meant to be apologising. Also, catastrophe?

“Catastrophe?” he says, because it’s the thing he’s both most and least confused about right now. 

“Yeah, that’s what Iggy says the kitten thing’s called,” Prompto says. “Weird name. Anyway, look, Gladio’s gonna train me to be less – kitteny, so. Hopefully I won’t make an idiot of myself again. But I am sorry, though.” 

Noct remembers the moments before he realised that Prompto was safe with Ignis, when he didn’t know where Prompto had gone. When it was dark and they were outside the haven and he knew that it was all his fault. 

“You’re not mad, right?” Prompto says. “I didn’t do it on purpose.” 

“No,” Noct croaks. He can’t even manage to be pissed off about the Gladio thing right now, because he’s too busy trying to figure out if he’s still supposed to be apologising to Prompto or not. “I’m not mad.” 

“Cool,” Prompto says. He puts one knee up in front of him and laces his fingers around it. “Uh – why were you yelling at me, anyway?” 

“I wasn’t – it wasn’t really you,” Noct says. “I was mad at Gladio and you got in the way.” 

“Oh, heh,” Prompto says, scratching the back of his head. “What’d Gladio do?” 

“He was just… Gladio,” Noct says. He bumps his shoulder against Prompto’s. He should say something else, but – this is good. Comfortable. If Prompto’s not mad about the kitten thing, then why pour salt on the wound? 

“Yep, I getcha,” Prompto says. “Guess I’m going to be spending a lot more time with him now, though, so – Man, I’m gonna get noogied to death.” 

And just like that, Noct’s pissed off again. 

~

Noct stays pissed off for about a week. They don’t really do much – Ignis is really obsessed with making sure Prompto doesn’t get stressed, which means they don’t do a lot of travelling and the few hunts they take on are ones they can dispatch in a couple of hours while Prompto waits at the camp. In the meantime, Prompto spends hours every day out in the woods with Gladio. They do a lot of running and a lot of meditating, apparently. Noct’s still not sure how Gladio’s qualified to teach anyone emotional balance. But Prompto doesn’t turn into a kitten the whole week, and Noct’s mostly glad about that. 

At night, things are – weird. Prompto may have managed to go a few days without kittening out, but apparently there’s some part of him that’s been brought to the surface by all the catastrophising (as Prompto is now calling up, much to Ignis’ irritation) and that doesn’t go away just because he’s not actually catastrophised for a while. It’s a really, really snuggly part of him. Not that Noct minds. Prompto’s really warm, and having him cuddle up every night is actually pretty nice. And yeah, it’s weird, but it stops feeling weird and starts feeling normal pretty quickly. Plus, it definitely alleviates his mood a little that Prompto always gravitates towards him and not Gladio. Not that he’d ever admit that to anyone. 

On the seventh day of Prompto ‘training’ with Gladio, the two of them come back early. Well, actually, it’s mostly Prompto that comes back early. He bursts out of the trees in the middle of the afternoon, startling Noct, who’s just woken up and is still working himself up to feeling like a human being. 

“Noct!” Prompto says, bounding across the haven and grabbing Noct’s arm. “I gotta talk to you. Like, right now.”

“Uh… OK, buddy,” Noct says. “You all right?” 

“Not here,” Prompto hisses. He glances back, and Noct sees Gladio emerging from the tree-line. Gladio looks pissed, but he doesn’t come any closer. He just stands there, folding his arms across his chest and glaring at them.

“OK,” Noct says. Something’s happened, and it sets the nerves jangling in the pit of his stomach. He stands up and lets Prompto drag him away, in the opposite direction from where Gladio’s standing. They keep going until they find a small clearing in the trees, and then Prompto lets go of him and starts pacing. 

“Prompto?” Noct says. Prompto definitely looks stressed, and that’s not good. Noct really wants to find out why he’s upset, and that’s not information he’s going to be able to get out of Kitten Prompto. “Hey – are you doing that breathing thing?” 

“Holy shit, Noct,” Prompto says. He definitely doesn’t sound like he’s doing the breathing thing. “Holy fucking shit.” 

“Come on, dude,” Noct says. He’s starting to feel seriously worried now. “What’s the matter? Are you all right?” 

Prompto runs both hands through his hair and then stops pacing and turns to face Noct. He stares at him, wide-eyed.

“Gladio kissed me,” he says.


End file.
